Tmnt #300
 

Just got this in my E-mail :

‘TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES’ #300 KICKS OFF BLOCKBUSTER STORYLINE, CELEBRATES WITH NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN KEVIN EASTMAN & PETER LAIRD COVER

https://i.ibb.co/ZzL8QFkW/mail.jpg

"The comics side of the [TMNT] franchise has never been bigger or more varied" - Matthew Aguilar, ComicBook.com

LOS ANGELES, CA (February 19, 2026) – After more than 40 years of exciting and innovative comic book storytelling, TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (TMNT) is approaching its milestone 300th issue… and IDW Publishing has Technodrome-sized plans to give the Heroes in a Half-Shell the shellabration they deserve!


TMNT #300 Cover B by Peter Laird, Kevin Eastman, Fahriza Kamaputra
Leaping into comic shops this July is TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES #300. To commemorate the massive milestone, IDW has crafted a radical blind bag program with an incredible lineup of cover artists, featuring multiple versions of a never-before-seen cover from co-creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, a stunning J. Scott Campbell variant, and more surprises to be revealed.

The landmark comic will kick off the blockbuster storyline ‘The City That Never Dies’ with Eisner Award-winning writer Gene Luen Yang and acclaimed artist Freddie E. Williams II. Splinter has returned from the dead, but at what cost? This action-packed and emotional tale will have a massive impact on the future of IDW’s TMNT Universe and is a can't-miss chapter for fans that will leave them feeling shell shocked.

Plus, this special commemorative issue will feature a back-up story from co-creator Kevin Eastman and fan-favorite writer Tom Waltz along with a roster of classic TMNT artists that celebrates the many eras of the Ninja Turtles.

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So it looks like we'll get a page or two of stuff like Lawson doing Mirage TMNT, Carlson/Fosco on Image TMNT, and Allan on Archie TMNT again, like in the anniversary stuff. I also wonder about that cover. Is that A NEW Laird piece he pencilled and Eastman inked up or something they found in a drawer from 30 years ago that they're resuscitating? They did spend a lot of time together fairly recently.

Cool, definitely looking forward to that.

Although, as we were discussing in another thread, this numbering convention is pretty stupid. It ignores Tales, Archie, Saturday Morning Adventures, Dream Wave, the myriad of miniseries' IDW, Mirage and Archie all put out. That stuff is all important too. We're probably closer to 1,000 issues of TMNT than we are 300.

Article at AIPT: https://aiptcomics.com/2026/02/19/tmnt-300-news/

Pretty sure the math is 62+13+32 (Mirage) + 23 (Image) + 150+20 (IDW), but yeah all the spinoffs and side series are equally valid entries.

For the record, I HATE the implication that if we're considering TMNT Vol. 4, #32 to be "TMNT #130" (62 + 13 + 23 + 32) that somehow IDW TMNT Vol. 1, #1 is "TMNT #131." That's even worse than calling IDW TMNT Vol. 1 "TMNT Vol. 5," which it isn't, either. It is not impossible but highly unlikely we will ever get a true TMNT Vol. 5 from Peter and/or Kevin, its true... but in the hypothetical world where we get it, it sure as fu**ing hell it would look NOTHING like IDW TMNT, on any level.

This NOT the way any of this is supposed to work. You wouldn't tally Batman: The Animated Series issues or any other spinoff universes into any sort of grand tally for a Batman legacy numbering, and you wouldn't with TMNT either. Unless you're, A) Just looking to throw FAKE clout at a thing, or B) You're an idiot.

I wasn't saying that I agree with it, only what I believe is the logical interpretation for the way the article words it.

Seems like the Chinese writer is sticking with the series longer than Jason Aaron did? Jason got 12 issues but it feels like the Chinese writer is a more permanent replacement. Maybe he'll be around for a 50 issue run like Sophie.

The American citizen will only be at 7 or 8 issues when this "#300" hits. I'm pretty sure he'll only be on for 12.

Who knows when that cover was actually created but it sure is great to see another Eastman/Laird piece. It’s like a comic book version of seeing a celebrity you like in person - that’s really them.

Not for nothing, but if you did a legacy numbering just for the main Batman comic going back to 1940, that covers Batman(s) of at least, like five universes.

It's a stunt to goose sales with an "anniversary" issue, like when Marvel incorporated the numbering for Superior Spider-Man into the Legacy numbers for Amazing. Everyone knows Superior isn't Amazing volume 3 (or whatever), and everyone knows Mirage and IDW are two seperate things.

You and I know that, but average joe who's never picked up a Mirage comic and is just dabbling in IDW probably WOULD think it's probably all the same universe, particularly if they saw this stunt.

Eh, I'll give you benefit of the doubt, but I feel like the people you're talking about either (a) think Last Ronin is Mirage, or (b) buy into the whole "the turtles were originally hardcore, r-rated with blood and guts and swearing" lie.

And either way, maybe the backup with the other artists will show those readers what Mirage is and what it was really all about.

You know, it MIGHT be newish. Laird used to always draw the tails early on... NOT drawing them came later.

IDW pulls marketing stunts like this to boost sales which is fine by me, you always see them put out a press release of like 200,000 copies sold every time they do a milestone issue. If this let's IDW survive another couple of years so the Mirage and Archie books continue to get collections and not canceled halfway through so be it.

This reminds me of that one time Marvel had Eddie Brock's return as Venom mark the 150th issue of Venom, even though no individual Venom comic got past 42 issues, the first 60 issues would would all have been mini-series of different titles and the first ongoing series simply titled Venom would then have started at issue 61 by this account.

...Legacy Numbering is such arbitrary bull...

... But at least with the Venom example they're in the same continuity, there's no DC comics pseudo-reboots or TMNT side-continuity and straight forward reboots under multiple publishers, the Venom Symbiote of the 616 universe is always a main character in those books. It feels weird when the IDW Turtles clearly aren't the same as the Image Turtles, who are only the Mirage Turtles if you squint and make excuses. And that's not even touching the fact that most of the guest authors on Mirage didn't really use the Mirage Turtles.

You don't even really have to do that, unless you want to get into things like how the Mirage universe on a whole wouldn't ever be compatible with the Image/Savage Dragon/Spawn universe on a whole. Which of course it's not -- at all -- but I've always felt like that seems like a silly direction from which to argue.

Vol. 4 works perfectly as a "few years later" follow-up to Image TMNT, really. Was everything wrapped up? No, but so what? Look at how Vol. 2 was left. Or Vol. 4 now, for that matter.

I like this black and white (and red) variant, only missing the old school duotone.

https://fanboyfactor.com/wp-content/...3-663x1024.jpg

Referring to the cover as "Never Before Seen" makes me think this is an old, unused Laird piece that Kevin inked, same as the 40th Anniversary special covers. The pencils for those had the turtles with tails and Eastman took em out in the inking stage.

Hey it wouldn't be comic books if it wasn't needlessly confusing :lol:

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/c39iCIiRSDU/hqdefault.jpg

Yeah, it's great! Probably a blindbag variant thought, isn't it?

I'm always impressed by the colors by Fahriza Kamaputra on these new covers! Great job!
As for the art I would say it is relatively recent, maybe something Laird drew for the 30th anniversary in 2014. The proportions are a bit off.

Does anyone know what the "real count" of every TMNT comic ever published is? I know this will be impossible because of all the short stories and spinoff cartoon comics or magazine comic stuff, but if you just ignore that, the reprints/collections, and just each comic count from each series including the specials, where would we be at?

I imagine we have to be near 1000 published TMNT comics since 1984 if you include EVERYTHING. All of Mirage, all Mirage specials, Image, Archie TMNT, IDW, IDW's 2012 animated comics, Rise comics, Saturday Morning Adventures, the Movie comics including the 2007 movie prequel comics, etc.

I'm looking forward to see if he will kill more bloated characters.

Well the way I see it the chinese writer will probably not be allowed to kill some characters:

Shredder = off limits for now obviously
Bebop/Rocksteady = nah
Koya and Bludgeon = Probably not
Baxter = He already had him attacked and he survived, so he's likely not allowed to kill him
Old Hob = Nah

Null and Metalhead = clearly being saved for an arc with Noi Tar Daar, probably the next big space arc

We literally just had Savanti get his head cut off, and I'm sure the Dog Star gang will be wiped out at the end of the next big story arc. There's really not much else depending if Mr. Marlin and the Snow Leopard mutant from Casey's mini survives for awhile.

Most of the other villains are already dead (Krang, Bishop, Rat King, Hun, Triceratons, Ch'rell, Savanti, ), or are arrested/done away with in some form like Zodi, the gang of four, dr. barlow, etc.

Zodi is currently with the Dogstar Clan as of the last Foot Clan miniseries.

Just off the top of my head, I’m counting a little over 850. If I get bored someday I will sit down and do a real count.

One tricky thing is, what counts and what doesn’t?

- Reprints?
- Spinoffs like TMNTA Presents: The Mighty Mutanimals?
- TPBs with some new content?
- Weird stuff like Mirage Mini Comics or Challenges?
- Parodies?
- Kevin Eastman’s Drawing Blood?
- FCBD stuff?

https://prhcomics.com/book/?isbn=82771403435600831
Look like Shredder will deal with them, and Kitsune has also returned in Shredder #5.

I would count any full length issue of 20+ pages or more. Obviously this gets tricky because you can't count all those short 6-8 page shorts Mirage did that eventually got collection in Turtle Soup or Shell Shock. Challenges could count as just one big thing I guess.

Obviously re-prints/collections/colorized stuff doesn't count.

And yeah, all specials count. So all Archie Adventure specials as an issue, all Mirage specials and one-shots, crossovers, etc.

Guest appearances?

Adding up all the non repeating TMNT comics from my rolodex (and even I'm still missing a few here and there), there's 923 comics by my count. IDW alone makes up 338 issues, and I'm still missing a few. I have no idea which things they're counting to get to #300.

- Mirage Volume 1, 2 and 4.
- Image Volume 3.
- IDW Volume 1 and 2.

Basically everything titled just plain “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”, ignoring the Dreamwave run for whatever reason.

The ones they're not supposed to.

Well I think they're basing it on original/main stream/basic version of the TMNT titles as you said with that title.
Dreamwaves was based on the 2003 cartoon version technically. That's why it's probably excluded.

Yeah, you’re right. I just think it’s stupid. The Dreamwave and Archie runs are technically spinoffs, but they’re no more derivative than the IDW run is.

Tales of the TMNT may be an anthology series, but there’s some incredibly important sh*t in there. The original Micros were essentially part of the ongoing as they were released, they just wanted to have some fun with the titles.

IDW isn’t even readable without its supplemental books.

I know you have to draw the line somewhere if you’re going to do something like this, but I personally disagree with the chosen convention.

Just got an E-mail. #300 will have a Frank Miller cover.

At last! There wouldn't be any Turtles without Frank Miller's influence after all. This should have happened when his drawings were less... weird.

That's... pretty horrible.

Are you surprised? I mean... When did Miller last draw anything that looked good? The Dark Knight Strikes Again was made 25 years ago and the art in that book looks horrible, Miller has not been a good artist for nearly 30 years. Which is really sad, considering he used to be a great artist.

I wonder though, did he actually lose his talent or did just get so enamoured with stylisation that he got out of touch?

Not bad at all.

The implication that the turtles need suspenders to keep their shells on is hilarious.

I love it, personally. His modern style feels very fitting for TMNT comics, could've come right out of guest era Mirage. I'm thinking he referenced Simon Bisley's turtles, given their anatomy, shoulder belt straps, the way Raph's sai & Don's bo are drawn, etc, so that's an added cool point, to me.